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NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat_9:20-22
20And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak; 21for she was saying to herself, "If I only touch His garment, I will get well." 22But Jesus turning and seeing her said, "Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well." At once the woman was made well.
Mat_9:20 "a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years" We learn more details about this account from Mar_5:26 and Luk_8:43. Apparently she had spent all of her money on doctors and had received no help. We know of some of the magical cures in rabbinical Judaism from the Talmud, particularly Shabb, 110 A and B. One of the cures was to carry ostrich eggs or barley corn obtained from the dung of a white donkey around one's neck. One can imagine the grotesque kinds of cures this woman had tried during these twelve years. This particular kind of illness made her ceremonially unclean and unwelcome in regular Jewish worship services (cf. Lev_15:25). Also she was probably physically exhausted most of the time.
Mat_9:21 "if I only touch His garment, I will get well" There was an element of superstition in this woman's faith and yet Jesus honors even her weak faith (third class conditional sentence). Based on Lev_15:19 ff. it would have been illegal for her to touch a rabbi because it would have made Jesus ceremonially unclean. Jesus was more concerned with people than He was with ceremonial laws!
The garment referred to was possibly (1) Jesus' outer robe (cf. Joh_19:2) or (2) Jesus' prayer shawl (talith), which He used to cover His head during worship (cf. Num_15:38-40; Deu_22:12; Mat_23:5) and worn on the shoulders at other times.
Mat_9:22 "your faith has made you well" This is literally the term "saved." It was used in its OT sense of "physical deliverance" (cf. Jas_5:15). This woman's faith, weak though it was because of superstition, was still honored by Jesus. In the NT it is the object of ones faith that is the issue.